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Sunday, September 21, 2008

Irish Homework

School's back in session and Lisa has assigned us to outline our plans for researching our Irish heritage. I have many Irish ancestors but I must admit that I know very little about most of them.

David & Leatis Carlisle are thought to be Irish, however some records indicate that they may have actually been from Scotland. David was born about 1702 and Leatis about 1705. The first record I've found for them is the birth of daughter, Elizabeth, 22 October 1730 in Concord, Middlesex, MA. For this assignment I will endeavor to learn more about Irish history at the beginning of the 18th century and see what ship passenger records are available.

In with the family letters that I copied in Michigan earlier this year, there were also some genealogical papers that have given me more information on the ancestry of my great-grandmother, Rose Graham. In a piece written by a cousin, Rose was described as "dirty, shanty, Irish." This led me to believe that her parents must have been migrants. I now know that this assumption was false. Jared and Sarah (Jackson) Graham immigrated sometime before 1795. Rose's mother was Elizabeth Doughty, born 1826 in Virginia. For this assignment I will: 1.) Transcribe the family notes contained in the file, 2.) Verify the Graham genealogy that I have found online, 3.) Try to determine the parents of Elizabeth Doughty and take the line further back, and 4.) Learn more about Irish history from the mid to late 18th century.

Michael & Mary Kelly most likely left Ireland at the time of the potato famine. They settled an hour north of where I now live. I need to find out where they are buried and try to find records that may tell me what Mary's maiden name was. I believe that they emigrated to Canada and then on to the United States. As their names are quite common, I will try to see how much solid information I can find about them from records in Jefferson County, NY. I will then see if I can find any records for them in Ontario, Canada. Hopefully I will someday be able to track them back to Ireland but I am doubtful. So for now I will read up on general Irish history from the early 19th century through the potato famine.

I will assign myself reading for the first semester. Google books has several older titles that will be a good starting point. I will see what our local library system has so I can have an actual book on hand during my wait time at work. Transcribing what I have and digging deeper will probably be second semester assignments.

This was written for the 8th edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture, to be hosted by Lisa at Small-leaved Shamrock.